Emanuel Otto Hahn | |
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| Born | 30 May 1881 |
| Died | 14 February 1957(1957-02-14) (aged 75) |
| Nationality | German-Canadian |
| Known for | Sculptor and coin designer |
Emanuel Otto HahnRCA (30 May 1881 – 14 February 1957) was a German-born Canadiansculptor andcoin designer. He taught and later marriedElizabeth Wyn Wood. He co-founded and was the first president of theSculptors' Society of Canada.
Hahn was born inReutlingen (today a part ofBaden-Württemberg,Germany) and moved toToronto in 1888 with his family. He studied modelling and commercial design at theToronto Technical School andOntario College of Art as well asIndustrial Design from 1899 to 1903. In 1901, he was hired by the McIntosh Marble and Granite Company where he created the bronze reliefs on various monuments. Hahn then went on to study inStuttgart, Germany in 1903, he pursued art and design at the local school of art and design and the Polytechnical School, and briefly apprenticed in the studio of a sculptor teaching at the academy.
From 1908 to 1912 Hahn was a studio assistant to sculptorWalter Seymour Allward, helping in the construction of Allward'sSouth African War Memorial in Toronto, theAlexander Graham Bell Telephone Memorial inBrantford Ontario, and the Baldwin-Lafontaine Monument onParliament Hill inOttawa. In 1912 he was hired as a modeling instructor at theOntario College of Art, ultimately heading the sculpture department until his retirement in 1951.
He was made a member of theRoyal Canadian Academy of Arts.[1]
Hahn married his former studentElizabeth Wyn Wood in 1926. The couple had one daughter[2] and lived in Toronto at 159 Glen Road.[3] and died in Toronto in 1957.[4]
![The Saint-Lambert, Quebec Cenotaph by Emanuel Hahn, inaugurated on July 9, 1922, by General Sir Arthur Currie[5]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fwikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aSaint-Lambert_Cenotaph_2014.jpg)
Afterthe First World War Hahn gained fame for his war memorial designs as communities sought to honour their veterans with cenotaphs and memorial sculptures.[9] He designed a monument on the theme of a realistic soldier figure "going over the top" inSaint-Lambert, Quebec and a meditating figure of Tommy in his Greatcoat inLindsay, Ontario.[10] Hahn's winning proposal for the city ofWinnipeg's war memorial caused a national controversy when the sculptor's German ancestry was revealed in 1925. Hahn was forced to relinquish the commission, although he was able to keep the prize money. Controversy erupted again when the competition was reopened and his wifeElizabeth Wyn Wood won the contract for the memorial. Critics condemned Wood for using her maiden name in the competition and accused her of copying her husband's design. She was also forced to withdraw from the contract and the memorial was awarded to the third-place winner.
Hahn's career was not significantly harmed, however, since he received wide press coverage, some of which condemned the city of Winnipeg because Hahn was a naturalized Canadian citizen. The following year he was awarded the contract for theEdward Hanlan monument (1926), erected on theCanadian National Exhibition grounds, and moved to theToronto Islands in 2004.[11] In 1929 he won the competition for a memorial toSir Adam Beck, his most important and largest monumental project, unveiled in 1934 onUniversity Avenue, Toronto.
Hahn was a member ofThe Arts and Letters Club of Toronto and served as the first President of theSculptors' Society of Canada, which he established withFrances Loring,Florence Wyle and Elizabeth Wyn Wood in 1928. Membership in the sculptors' society permitted Hahn to exhibit smaller sculptures independently of museums and galleries.
The Ontario Heritage Foundation plaque for theSouth African War Memorial (Toronto) erroneously states thatWalter Seymour Allward studied under Emanuel Hahn, when in fact it was the contrary.
James Saull, who constructed theOak Bay, British Columbia Cenotaph in 1948, studied under Emanuel Hahn.[12]
Hahn's last work is likely theRobert H. Saunders Memorial, a bas relief marker located on University Avenue south of College Street in 1957.
Among thecoins of Canada, Hahn designed theVoyageur Dollar, which depicts a fur-trapper (coureur de bois) from theHudson's Bay Company and aFirst Nations man in a canoe with theNorthern Lights in the background; theNova Scotia racing schoonerBluenose on the 10¢ coin; thecaribou head on the 25¢ coin; and theCanadian Parliament Buildings reverse of the1939 royal tour of Canada silver dollar.
Hahn was the subject of a larger than life-size (56 cm) bust by his former student Elizabeth Bradford Holbrook entitledHead of Emanuel Hahn. The sculpture was purchased by the National Gallery of Canada in 1962 for its permanent collection.[13]
Media related toEmanuel Hahn at Wikimedia Commons
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